Don't get your hopes up, and keep brushing your teeth: "The tooth regrowth medicine is intended for people who lack a full set of adult teeth due to congenital factors (anodontia)". There is a vague hope to develop it so that people who lose teeth can use it to regrow, but that seems to be another ball game.
> for people who lack a full set of adult teeth due to congenital factors (anodontia)
I've got this, and 1% of people have this. I'd have to imagine that most of them would have obliterated the spot where they could grow these hypothetical new teeth by getting implants, though. So, I'd even think that it's really a treatment for children.
When I was a small child, it was already absolutely certain that I wasn't ever going to get my lateral incisors.
I’ve had “Maryland Bridges” in mine for years (apparently longer than the bridges are typically expected to last (?)), so there are some of us adults around…
But sadly for me:
Once confirmed to have no ill effects on the human body, it will be aimed at treating children aged 2 to 6 who exhibit anodontia.
So my son is like this. Missing a whole bunch of teeth, they'll never come in. Now the question is... wait for this? Or just get implants. He's already way past this 2-6 age range, too :-( Tough.
This is at way to early a stage to plan around. It is just reaching human safety trials, which is the very earliest part of human trials looking solely for adverse effects. Even in the best possible scenario it would be many years still before this might be available as a treatment. Most drugs which reach this phase of development do not ever become available as a treatment.
> I'd have to imagine that most of them would have obliterated the spot where they could grow these hypothetical new teeth by getting implants
Maybe not. Apparently implants are not common everywhere. I have a Chinese friend who recently got them in the US after an accident, he had some medical connections back home who said the procedure isn't very available in China.
I get the impression that they're targeting the easy case first since stimulating tooth growth there is causing what was supposed to happen anyways, with less likelihood of conflict with the existing teeth.
But the article makes it sound plausible that it'd work for normal adults too in that new tooth growth would occur. It's just unclear how/if they guide that growth to a specific area, or if it has to be wholesale replacement of the set of teeth like losing your baby teeth.
Maybe what will happen is once you get to a certain point of dental misery you just get on the medicine blocking USAG-1 and have all the remaining teeth pulled, then wait for the new teeth to grow in...
This is all hypothetical, of course, but: you don't have to lose all your baby teeth in order for your adult teeth to come in. Somehow an adult tooth coming in causes the baby tooth's root to dissolve (if that's the right word) and then pushes the remaining baby tooth out of the way. So you might not need to lose your adult teeth in order for the next-gen teeth to come in.
> CMIIW, but when baby teeth is already grown (appear), the other adult set is actually kept hidden inside, not that it grow.
Yup. See this skull of a child with the adult teeth ready to come out and push the baby teeth out of the way (warning, some people find the image very repulsive, even though it's basically a textbook picture of a skull):
The human body is so amazing... It evolved to ship ready-made replacement parts to ensure the product would complete its deployment (reaching puberty and reproducing for a decade or two).
I think it comes off as more repulsive because we're not used to seeing those parts of the skull cut away, putting it in the uncanny valley. What helped me to not be as repulsed by it was realizing that those parts of the skull aren't meant to be "uncovered" to show the adult teeth in the first place.
It seems like turning on a switch for continuously growing anything is a recipe for cancer. Modern medicine and what it accomplishes continues to absolutely astound me with what is possible.
An unconditional one is but selectivity and reversibility is the key. Nothing makes that unachievable, just more complicated.
Teeth growth is a good target for such experimentation. Given its relatively easily operable nature allowing convenient observation of progress and intervention if needed.
We already can accelerate the regrowth of fingernails after losing one. This is the next easiest target if you ask me.
A shorter path to market might be to grow replacements in a sacrificial host using harvested stem cells from the recipient. Transplanting into the socket once sufficiently developed, with some of the magic sauce topically applied at the interface to promote it all taking root and growing into its new home...
It sounded like they were doing experiments with transplants as well in one of the papers I skimmed.
I might actually prefer that approach if it had a high success rate, to replace a thoroughly trashed tooth. Seems preferable to exposing oneself to the new treatment for the entire duration of tooth development. Especially if all you need is one replacement...
some newspaper translator had to figure out how to translate the novel(ish?) phrase 歯生え薬. what do you want? it's not like this is FDA-approved marketing materials for something that's actually available.
I have GERD and the only reason I found out was my dentist told me. It was because my teeth became so sensitive a room temperature banana was too cold. Lots of pain and still. It's from coughing due to acid reflux and acid splash up onto my teeth. It can also get into my lungs and over time damage them too by causing scarring.
I had bad undiagnosed allergies for years that made me vomit for hours a day every day (amount many other things).
Cost the 4 rearmost teeth on the top side not including the wisdom teeth which were prob gonna need to go anyways.
They got eaten away because doctors were negligent and now every time I move and get a new dentist they treat me like I treat my mouth like shit.... Nah, I just had most of them damaged by literally thousands of liters of stomach acid, bile, and black stuff which was apparently blood from somewhere they can't see scarring on now... thanks doc.
Anyways I guess that my way of saying I sympathize.
HN won't let me edit or delete the first time I replied and I don't like how its formatted. Though I just tested and am adding this sentence as an edit, strange site behavior... Sorry for repost folks but need to:
Oh boy, "the list"... Here goes a simplified version:
Oh boy, "the list"... Here goes a simplified version:
Beef chicken and pork (other meats untested, manual exposure testing required)
ALL nightshades (potato's tomatoes peppers etc)
the Entire Carrot/Celery/Parsley family (it's big)
Lettuces (ridiculous, it's just water!)
Rice
Oats
All berries
All tree pollens including that contaminating food.... (This is the real kicker, as it hurt worst when ingested)
And some uncommon stuff is honestly always forget even existed and then get freaked out when I realized I missed it on the list
Thankfully they all went away, supposedly due to age related changes to body chemistry.
Same here, the CPAP did wonders for treating apnea, and I also stopped snoring, to my fiancee's joy. About the reflux, the CPAP seems to have helped, although I already reduced it by a lot by anticipating dinner so that I would go to bed long after digestion was complete.
My wife couldn't sleep through my snoring after we had our first child. Her hormone changes gave her trouble sleeping and the extra tiredness, from a baby, meant my snoring got worse. She demanded that I go to a doctor to sort it out. I thought there was nothing they could do. Turns out a CPAP stopped my snoring. It's amazing what an impact treating the apnea has had. My mind is clear, my memory is back and I can focus like I did in university. Truly life changing.
It makes sense because the oral cavity (no pun intended) is under positive pressure with CPAP. Not everyone has sleep apnea and not everyone can tolerate CPAP, so it's not a universal solution to GERD. My GERD would be solvable during hiatal hernia surgery.
Did you have no idea at all, as in, you never felt heartburn in the evening? I wonder if eating the last meal at eg 4PM wouldn’t improve this considerably.
As someone else who has some serious GERD, no, you don’t really notice. It’s like boiling a frog (unless you get an acute version). You just suddenly realize: hey, I seem to be having heartburn all the time, I don’t remember it being like this… maybe I should go to the doc? And then you’re fine for a few days and put it off.
And no, eating at different times won’t magically make your sphincter to your stomach close any tighter.
This is probably not as simple as blaming the dysfunctional sphincter.
IMO early time restricted feeding shouldn’t be dismissed so quickly, it‘s potentially a fix for a number of systemic and gastric/enteric issues. The evidence is still weak but promising. The most important part here is „early“ - intermittent fasting usually has an eating window in the afternoon and maybe right until bed time. According to some (weak) studies, moving the eating window to the morning and early afternoon has vastly different effects.
Weirdly, I've also heard from people in that situation that more acid => less reflux because the sphincter only closes in high-pH environments. So one of the things prescribed can be hydrochloric acid supplements. Some people swear by them.
Symptoms of chronic acid reflux, laryngopharyngeal reflux and heartburn can also be caused by hypochlorhydria (low stomach acid), in which case taking hydrochloric acid will obviously also reduce the symptoms in that case.
You're 100% right, I got the doctor rush to prescribe treatment on this when I was 24. Was never enough
Finally instilled some healthy habits by 32, namely no excessively large meals and no eating big meals ~3 hours before bed and it magically disappeared.
I just had my first bout in a while yesterday - 2 smalls pizza is still 2 pizzas folks!
Also alginate based products create a raft that block the acid from physically coming up.
The early time restricted feeding stuff is very interesting, and new to me - but I did learn a lot about it reading this guys blog -https://caloriesproper.com/etrf-2022/
Thanks for sharing the exercises! What seems to have helped me was losing weight (not easy at all, but has many additional benefits). There are some additional exercises (look for "hiatal hernia exercises" on YouTube), which are very simple and sometimes can get you instant relief. It's surprising so few people know about them. The comments section under those videos is often full of messages along the lines of "I've been suffering for years, this video changed my life." It's really helpful to know you can do something about it that does not involve taking PPIs every single day.
One other hugely useful change has been drinking alkaline water - it immediately stops the burning in the back of my throat, and is useful even if your issues are pepsin based and not just acid reflux. It should be good for dental/esophageal health as well.
I'll check out the hiatal hernia exercises, thanks!
Other possible solutions:
d-limone
In one unpublished trial, subjects took one gram of d-limonene every other day for 20 days, on an empty stomach (that is, half an hour before eating or an hour afterward). A third of them experienced relief from their heartburn after a single capsule, and within two weeks 90 percent had relief. After a single course of treatment, relief lasted for up to six months.
Licorice
The natural solution for ulcers, deglycyrrhizinated licorice root (DGL), can also be an effective acid reflux treatment. The suggested dose of DGL is two tablets, chewed about 20 minutes before meals, three times a day, or it can be taken shortly before bedtime if you suffer mostly from nighttime acid reflux. Use only chewable DGL—it must be mixed with saliva in order to be effective.
IQORO -
It's like a pacifier put behind lips and pull.
No I mean I had heartburn sometimes but who hasn't but really I didn't think it was unusually bad. Of all my symptoms the one that should have stood out was coughing. Acid splashes up and gets into your airway and you cough. There may not even be any heartburn feeling. I had that for years even as a teenager. I thought I was smart because I figured out as a teen an antacid would make my weird cough go away but I had never heard of GERD what teen has? This was well before the Internet age.
My issue is I can stop eating at 5pm or even 4pm but at night if I roll over on my stomach it pushes on it and I vomit up digest food. There's nothing like sitting bolt upright from that feeling as you aspirate into your lungs at 3am! Even lying on my side doesn't help I can feel acid pour into my throat.
PPI meds like Prevacid make me feel bad just an all around blah feeling. they are not supposed to be taken long term and I've read ppi medications may damage kidneys. I think similar to high blood pressure medicine it has some effect on kidneys and can even cause coughing due to it.
One weird quirk though is at my worst if I got sick with the flu my acid reflux went away.
So for now watch my diet, eat somewhat sensibly (almost impossible since everything is a trigger), and try not to eat too late.
This will give you the regrowth but the teeth will look like shark teeth. That might cause some odd looks and be careful not to bite your tongue. You’ll only be able to do that once!
:-)
Ha! I bit off my tongue from falling a pretty good height. My knee came up and hit my chin, forcibly closing my mouth on my screaming face.
When I could finally move again (was paralyzed for a bit), and got to the hospital, they just told me to keep my mouth shut. Apparently, your tongue is just a muscle, so it will reattach itself.
It was a shitty few weeks, but at least I didn’t break any bones or land on my head.
Ouch! I did something similar snowboarding in my early 20s. Landed a badly timed jump on to hard, flat snow and slammed my knee into my chin. Thankfully did not catch my tongue, but shattered several teeth!
I remember wondering how I’d ended up with a mouthful of sand and grit. It wasn’t sand.
Yes, my stepmother did that when she was young. Not sure what they did for it but when I met her she had a weird flap of tongue that could flip forward. That part never reattached. It was disturbing and fascinating to 10 year old me.
I couldn’t move my tongue for a few days (to let it reattach) then it was painful for a few more days, then some of it turned white and rotted off over a few weeks. But other than some gnarly teeth shaped scars, it works and functions like a normal tongue after 20 years.
Carrying around a note explaining why I couldn’t talk was also entertaining.
It does perhaps change the ball game though I would presume - if the goal is to grow a tooth which didn't develop, it changes the requirement to regrow a tooth to just regenerating whatever root structure you need to trigger that (which I would assume is a collection of specialized cells/nerves etc. which you could imagine maybe assembling from stem cells in a scaffold and implanting).
I have a friend with notoothia. Only in one tooth tho. And ya, it's weird looking. She got an implant. One of those titanium screws. It works but the gum is weird and the tooth is missized.
Would she switch it for a grown tooth given the option? I dunno.
I do what I'm told to do. Yet as the years pass it's been cavities, root canals, extractions, crowns, and everything else.
The worst part isn't even the procedure, it's the cost (in the U.S. at least!). Thousands and thousands of dollars any time they need to do anything. And that's with dental insurance. They like to deny claims.
Dental should be covered under medical but that's an entirely different story. For now, I hope science keeps working on this.
The best dentist I ever had was the one we had at the Apple campus. He was paid by Apple and everything was covered by corporate, more or less (whatever the insurance didn’t cover beyond copay was paid by Apple if I recall correctly).
I saw them for awhile and we got friendly. He was a younger guy and told me that he was probably one of the few honest dentists in the area because his pay wasn’t dependent on high dollar procedure to make enough to keep a practice open. Apparently, unlike medical insurance, dental insurance pays pittance for most things, so upselling procedures is how dentists really make money, usually.
Best dentist I ever had. Rarely did I need more than regularly scheduled cleanings and when I did he always started with the least invasive options (I grind my teeth in my sleep and before I realized it and got a guard there were complications)
I miss that guy. I’ve been suspicious of dentists ever since and look for signs.
In Canada, they're essentially running a business, and one which (decades ago) specifically avoided the socialized health system which we have for regular doctors and such now.
I've got pretty good teeth, but am certainly wary of some of the recommendations I've had. Did have to have a molar out (hole all the way to sinus), no doubts there. The regular dentist said, "hey, you should get a bridge!" The specialist who did the removal and bone graft let me know that was the worst possible choice. Better to leave a gap, or get an implant if I want, but a bridge is caps on the adjacent teeth that will eventually wreck those teeth too. So him, I trust.
Making a bridge is considered malpractice now. This is what my younger dentist told me. I had an older dentist in the past who recommended a bridge.
Making a titanium implant or just leave it is the best option. Only if you are over 80 years or have some other issues (making it more risky to do the implant operation) should you go the bridge route instead of making an titanium implant.
To make a bridge you have to destroy (grind down into cones) two teeth adjacent to the bad/missing tooth onto which they glue the bridge. Crazy. On top of that you will forever have issues cleaning below the bridge which probably also causes your other good teeth to decay as more food and bacterias are sticking around.
Similar story. Moved to Bay Area, coworker recommended dentist told me I need to pull all 3 wisdom teeth left and get a night guard. Quotes me >$3500.
Funny that I went to the dentist in my home country just before I moved and they said all good. Went to another dentist (which I'm still with and absolutely love) and over past 4 years we haven't pulled a single wisdom tooth and I still don't have a night guard.
And the piece has at the very beginning: "The idea of growing new teeth is every dentist's dream. I've been working on this since I was a graduate student. ..."
I'm not sure how involved this new teeth growing process is, but I can imagine it's not going to suck as much value out of you as a dentist can. Perhaps this isn't even done at the dentist (I hope so actually.)
I always felt like I was getting screwed by my dentist, but then I walked through a, what we'd here call a "volksbuurt", a neighborhood that isn't particularly rich. Saw a dentist, and it seemed more like a community place. I walked in, registered and have loved it ever since. They think along with me, tell me to get insured because something big is coming up next year and they can shift the current work to January (when the new insurance starts), they are very transparent about cost, explain why things are needed. I really appreciate that. They even told me that the pain I experience can go away without any major intervention if I really started to floss daily, it worked indeed.
Similar stories exist for garages (the place where they fix your car).
I have a bad experience with night guards and it seems to be something dentists like to prescribe unfortunately. I got one as I had pain in one tooth and it was due to grinding and closing my mouth hard in the nights.
Once I started with the night guard I got even more pain and after a month or two my tooth cracked and had to be repaired.
As there is even less space (as you have the plastic stuff between your teeth now) it seems you press even harder which damages the teeth even more. Maybe against light grinding movement it can help, but against pressing your teeth hard together at night it does definitely not help.
The best advice I got was to remind yourself at night when going to bed (and during the night when you notice it) to open your mouth a little (still with the lips closed) so that the teeth do not touch. It's a habit thing. I also noticed I grinded/pressed my jaws together more if I went to bed late.
Maybe the pressing the tongue against the palate and practicing proper tongue posture (so called mewing) isn't without merit. The force of the tongue counteracts the jaw muscles.
Similar. I saw a dentist in SoCal when I was visiting my family (I live in the UK) and I was under some misguided impression dentistry was better in the US. Very fancy office, took colour X-rays, then told me I needed all 6 of my fillings redone and a mouth solution to protect my gums. Total amount around 3k.
I decided just to go see my local UK dentist. Shabby office, black and white x-rays. They said all my fillings were perfectly fine and showed me on the X-ray what they look at. They also told me the gum wash (which cost $150) was unnecessary.
That was 6 years ago and I haven’t had any issues with my teeth.
My dentist had a Harley Street branch, they were expensive even for a routine check up, but they were the best I ever had, honest, didnt try to push additional treatments on to you, could discuss different treatments and they would explain the pro's and con's of the different treatments. They knew I didnt mind spending money on my teeth and it was out of my pocket not insurance schemes, but they were perfectly frank and honest which was a rarity and much valued quality.
There was no waiting around in waiting rooms, it was a top notch service in every way.
My only concern which I found out recently, was the increased used of xrays to check the teeth can increase the incidence of thyroid cancer.
Another dentist I knew who wrote their own software even said my dentist was expensive.
There are plenty of honest dentists in the Bay Area (and America). If you're well informed, it's easy to tell based on a combination of Yelp reviews and what they recommend when you come in for an exam. Most of them only take higher paying PPO insurance, or don't take insurance at all (well, they're out of network).
From personal experience I need a regular cleaning every year and since I'm not cheaping out anymore on this as I did as student my teeth related health problems went to 0. I think it is useful if you aren't that disciplined with taking care of it yourself. I forget to floss every other time or simply forget to brush at times when I sit at a longer coding session and might eat during it but then forget to brush teeth afterwards. Procedure always removes plenty of scale/tartar.
Over 2-3 years, which isn't insignificant, and does suggest cleanings can be done less frequently, but it isn't particularly long term.
I'm curious if that still holds over say 5 years. And how does it intersect with other practices. For example are people who don't floss religiously more likely to benefit from more frequent cleanings, etc.
The first one is about just 1 tooth they found in a pool of 1000 extracted teeth. The second one says "there was a high association between gingivitis and plaque status with calculus accumulation" in the abstract, thus contradicting your earlier comment.
I also grind me teeth. One dentist recommended me a guard. Just really don't like the idea of sleeping with plastics in my mouth 8 hours a day. What type do you have?
I had one dentist put some kind of lacquer type of thing on my molars (so that this material is ground down instead). But I've never been able to find another dentist that does it
Maybe somebody knows what this procedure is called?
yeah, looks like that's it. It's a bit uncomfortable to chew the first few days but I'm guessing it does the trick. Maybe it's suboptimal for teeth grinding? But sleeping with a guard sounds way more of a hassle
It is also one of the most heavily sought after physician specialities for PE roll-up. Consolidation of back office functions and technology really drives cost savings as there is little variation between treatments, consolidated purchasing power with supplies and, to your point, a lot of add-on opportunities to upsell patients.
My story is only about my doctor wanting to do additional x-rays because I had new insurance. She saw it as a way to get paid and I was already tired of getting offered another service at every visit. I told the practice I didn’t want another set of x-rays 6 months after my last when my insurance allows every year just because I had new insurance. You would have thought I had offended them, hygienist, front office and dentist all tried to change my mind.
I am very suspicious of dentists; I recently went to one because an old filling fell out and suddenly, they wanted to do tons of new fillings. I had only 1 visible cavity, but the x-ray showed some decay on the sides of the teeth of others. I had the visible cavity filled and booked to do the rest, but I cancelled it. With the new filling I'm having mild discomfort that comes and goes, but I think that's mostly because I hate how fillings feel. I am still procrastinating on getting a second opinion. The thing is that fillings eventually will fail after 10-20 years, so they are not only getting that business up front they are setting up a future revenue stream. It's hard to know who to trust, even from highly rated dentists.
> his pay wasn’t dependent on high dollar procedure to make enough to keep a practice open
> I miss that guy. I’ve been suspicious of dentists ever since and look for signs.
Now you can imagine how the avg person sees the cloud spaghetti coming out of a trendy boutique - being informed their 'perfectly fine' BSD box and ZFS setup needs to become a latent chain of 900ms microservices.
Some cases it is the play, but often it's RDD from new hires or grifters.
There's also the question of how much dental "care" is really that. I will just throw some random stuff out there.
* It used to be more popular to remove wisdom teeth. Opinions seem to have changed on this over time, I've never had mine removed, in my 40s now and so far so good.
* I had a small crack in one of my molars and saw a dentist who said a crown would be necessary. I was skeptical and got a second opinion. The second dentist immediately said "It's small and I don't think you need a crown for this" and did a filling instead. Eight years later, so far so good!
* Even FLOSSING was removed from the U.S. Department of Health's recommendations several years ago because there is a lack of evidence that it's effective! (I still floss around a couple of teeth every day in places where food likes to get stuck.)
To do a crown the dentist has to grind down your tooth into a stub and irrevocably destroys the enamel in the process. To me an unnecessary crown sounds like borderline malpractice. I wonder how many other unnecessary procedures dentists are doing for the $$$$.
Even the pushy dentists have rarely recommended removal of wisdom teeth unless they are trouble. I mean if it's pushing inside the muscle area towards bones or screwing up things for other teeth you have to. If it's forming a cavity area (like in my case) you definitely should get rid of it.
Wisdom tooth removal is not rite of passage. It's need based and often the needs are real and very much "needed".
> Even FLOSSING was removed from the U.S. Department of Health's recommendations several years ago because there is a lack of evidence that it's effective
This is bizarre because I can feel the change in my mouth everyday with and without flossing. I am not sure there is a need for some kind of empirical evidence here. Especially if there are not gigantic mountain pass like gaps between your teeth.
Yeah the crown job recos are often con jobs. Whenever I have been advised a drastic dental job I visit a Govt or a charitable medical college dental hospital here (India) and get a consultation. I do not get "polite" or "sophisticated" service there :D but I get honest and expert to the point advice.
I'm not suggesting that no one should floss. The opportunity cost is low. You have nothing to lose by doing it, other than a couple bucks spent on floss. It's similar to multivitamins, the evidence on the benefits of those is also low quality, but the most you have to lose is a couple of bucks.
In theory if you think in an evidence-based way your positions on flossing and multivitamins should be about the same, which is interesting.
What's really important though is that the profession of dentistry has not felt the need to fully study and establish the benefits of one of their most foundational recommendations.
Every dentist tells you to floss yet they have not bothered to establish reliable evidentiary proof that it works. If they don't care about evidence when it comes to flossing, what other procedures are they pushing without solid evidence of benefits?
The hot take way of saying this (and I do kind of believe this) is that dentistry as a medical science is in its infancy, and as a result, dentistry as a profession/business is partially snake oil.
All that said I have had one crown including a root canal done in my life, the need was clear and it was done well and professionally and I'm happy with it. So I'm not saying that everyone should ignore dentists but this imho is an important place in your life to consider getting second opinions and steer towards professionals who are less profit-driven when you can.
> The opportunity cost is low. You have nothing to lose by doing it, other than a couple bucks spent on floss.
I have ADHD. I hate flossing, and I'd put off flossing to the point where I wrecked my sleep cycle and tended to end up just not brushing my teeth before bed.
Ever since I stopped flossing, I've basically always brushed my teeth and have kept my sleep cycle more successfully.
Yes, I know this is potentially very bad dentally, but frankly I'm sick of having a catastrophically unreliable sleep cycle due to my mental illness and I'm willing to accept half-assing it if it means it doesn't destroy my life.
That said, I have no particular opinion on the evidentiary base of flossing - my dentist has always recommended I floss, and I believe his recommendation. I would floss if I could.
My situation somewhat overlaps with yours. I ordered a "water flosser" from everyone's favourite ecommerce site, and use it daily in the shower.
It seems to be doing something, and can't possibly be worse than my previous flossing regime which was: "twice a year the day before a dentist visit".
I wasn't willing to shell out for the name-brand water flosser, other options do the same job at the same water pressure for 1/4 the cost.
It took about a month to move up through the power settings. Start on the lowest and click it up when that starts to feel a bit tame.
I've now been using this thing for 6 months, it's just about time to find out whether I get my bi-annual nagging about the importance of flossing. My personal opinion: Cochrane's probably right, flossing is most likely bunk, but I'm pleased to have found a way to do it that I can stand
Plenty of other professions have these kind of best-practise recommendations that are not based on quantative data, so it’s likely something more universally human rather than a function of the profession’s age.
Once I went to a new dentist in a new area to do a teeth cleaning. He told me I had 4 cavities that needed filling. I was skeptical so I went to another one the next week. He said 2 cavities. I went to two more that month to see what else they'd say: one said no cavities, the other said 6. That was 8 years ago, I still don't have any cavities.
Your first two points seem legit, but if you pay attention to the measurements they're taking it's pretty easy to notice that your periodontal pocket depths increase or decrease based on whether you've been flossing or not (mine do at least). And it's pretty obvious that deep pockets are a decay precursor.
Exactly. IMHO, dentistry has been a scam for 100 years. Every 80 year old I know doesn't have teeth. Anytime you ask for another opinion they act like the last dentist was an alien. I think flossing is important, but when they tried to do a study, nothing worked because all the dentists are lying scam artists -- so if you floss or not is irrelevant.
I know that when I don’t floss, my gums will bleed sometimes during brushing and/or they’ll get inflamed. When I do floss regularly, absolutely no issue with bleeding or inflammation.
It’s so clear to me that I can’t imagine what the difference is between my anecdata and whatever actual data is coming from these studies.
One of the issues in the now infamous meta analysis was that many of the studies analyzed found some benefit, but they were low quality studies.
So this doesn't necessarily mean that flossing doesn't work. It may just mean that dentists are already making money hand over fist and don't care enough to do good studies and validate that.
BTW what was specifically looked at was whether unsupervised flossing works. So another possibility is that flossing properly works but a lot of people do it ineffectively.
All things you would want a conscientious, science-based ADA to care about
Also surprised, it seems to make such a big subjective difference. One tip I got from a busy dentist who did not want more business: smear a little toothpaste on the floss before using it, work through all the places where teeth contact. Gets flouride in places where it normally would not get to.
>When I do floss regularly, absolutely no issue with bleeding or inflammation.
Do they bleed during flossing though? I used to get bleeding gums after brushing teeth, but switching to a softer toothbrush stopped it. Flossing, at the start, does cause my gums to bleed though.
For me, flossing causes bleeding during the first week. Afterwards, the bleeding stop and my sensitivity to temperature improves greatly. My halitosis goes away on most days, too.
My dental hygienist knows when I have been flossing and when I haven't.
Yeah, that went away pretty quickly when I started flossing regularly really for the first time, a year or two ago (my dentist having strongly advised that I need to). I do feel like it has made a positive difference, but I have also cut back very significantly on sugary drinks over roughly the same period, having improved my diet a lot, so maybe that made more of a difference...
Flossing or brushing only causes bleeding for me when my gums aren't healthy. For example after getting a proper cleaning my gums won't bleed for weeks or months.
If they start bleeding again it's a sign I've not been doing a good job staying on top of keeping them healthy.
Only during the first 2-4 times (and lessening each day) after having not flossed for a while.
After that, I never bleed during flossing. And I make sure to get it up between the gum and each tooth, so there’s a decent (but appropriate) amount of floss/gum friction.
In my observation, flossing does work . The toothbrush can't get to the crevices that a floss can. My gum bleeding only happens when I'm flossing too rough or when I'm starting to floss after a few days of skipping it.
>Even FLOSSING was removed from the U.S. Department of Health's recommendations several years ago because there is a lack of evidence that it's effective!
I think that whether flossing is useful or not is highly dependent on the space between your teeth. I have small gaps between my teeth, and I floss three times a day. I can see the food come off on the floss. My father never flosses (jus brushes0, and never has any problems with his teeth, but he has large gaps between his teeth. Presumably, the bits of food just fall out.
A lack of evidence of course is not the same as no evidence.
Flossing definitely works against bad breath. If you feel that you get bad breath at the end of the work day it might be a good enough reason for that alone.
I do the whole shebang as a curtesy to others, and I hope they will return the favour.
First I'll say that I agree with you, there have been various treatments that never seemed to have made it into clinical trial and one that did make it but never became a treatment. Some where laser causing dentine to regenerate, one I remember was a certain kind of sponge filling made with an Alzheimer related treatment that would actually regenerate as the filling itself turned into dentine over time.
But what do you mean with do as your told? What do you use to clean your teeth? What toothbrush to do you use? What are the ingredients of your toothpaste?
What is the average PH of your mouth? Do you have acid reflux often? Do you eat sweet foods or flour i.e. simple carbs often? Do you eat a lot of fruits or salads before sleep?
I've had a long history of cavities until I actually started paying more detailed attention to what I eat, what tooth paste I use etc. None of that is stuff any of the dentists I went to ever told me. I panicked when a piece of my tooth broke off almost a decade ago.
BTW there is a treatment before you have to do root canals, I forgot the name, and most dentists don't do them. There is also a chance that it doesn't work and I assume that that's the reason why dentists don't generally offer it. I forgot the name but you can surely find it by googling. For a lot of people myself included don't an artificial gum transplant for receded gums also massively reduces exposure to dental issues.
There are certain calcium phosphote combinations like the Novamin thing that GSK bought and then forbade everyone else to use or Hydroxyapatite, which is sort of artificial dentine.
I use the Biorepair night creme(it's actually Hydroxyapatite and Xylitol) and sometimes the sensodyne repair & protect(keep in mind that the German version does not include novamin)
When my root was exposed I did apply clove oil and completely refrained from simple carbs for the treatment and after until it healed.
EDIT: a lot of Japanese tooth pastes also have it by the way and there is no real guarantee that it works, but theoretically it's supposed to fill microabrasions temporarily.
Also in the US, and also frustrated with the cost of dental care. I was poor growing up, so the solution to major dental issues was an emergency extraction. And I’m not exactly rolling in it now, and having to deal with several missing fillings, all uppers needing considerable work after an ill-informed “LVI” veneer experience ~20 years ago, and a decade old temporary implant that I could never afford to have finished with the permanent. And yes, I do my damnedest to take care of my teeth. Issues just keep piling up, and just one procedure for one crown—with dental insurance—would still be >$1k.
Unlike the Anglosphere countries apparently, here in Japan dental care is considered "medical" and an essential part of healthcare, and is covered by medical insurance just like any other medical problem. Cosmetic stuff of course is extra, but the essentials are covered no differently than any other procedure.
In Germany it used to be that way a long time ago. Then it went into base treatment free(amalgam fillings) and rest paid. Having been in the backend of health policy in Germany I can tell you that German current health leadership has been pushing to move normal care in the same direction as dental care to make more money.
Health insurance in the US makes it super explicit: "health insurance" does not cover dentistry or anything vision related. Because being unable to eat or see is not a health issue?
It's worse than that. Of course, you don't actually "need" teeth to eat: you can just eat baby food all the time I suppose. But a lot of infections in people start in the mouth, and historically tooth infections were the cause of early death for countless people. There's a reason people needed bad teeth pulled in the days before modern dentistry.
And yeah, vision checkups are pretty important to: regular checkups find problems inside your eyes that will cause blindness later.
The US seems to do an absolutely horrible job of preventative healthcare. Here in Japan, everyone gets a free yearly health checkup that looks for all kinds of issues; it includes blood, urine, and stool testing, and also includes hearing and vision checks, abdominal ultrasounds, a chest x-ray, etc.
Yep, we get such a good start, then it's all downhill. At 18 you're hardly a responsible adult.. And it's not exactly cheap out of pocket here either. (though maybe better then the US? maybe)
Why not take a longer holiday to Turkey or Thailand once a year and do all dental appointments ? Should be much cheaper even with a flight and accomodation. I know some of people from UK doing this and flying to Turkey for yearly dental check. Dental clinics very professional there and you have English speaking staff.
If USA based maybe Mexico or Colombia also a good closer choice?
One of my front teeth got broken at a pool party in Thailand. I was able to get it fixed the next day with a walk-in appointment for $75. The fix lasted for something like 5 years.
Dental insurance is usually pretty decent in the US, probably not worth leaving the country unless it's significant work. I have no idea with OP is getting done that costs thousands of dollars. Certainly that's an outlier.
Not so. Anecdata point: My wife and I dropped our Delta Dental insurance this year. We reviewed what we'd paid in premiums over the prior 5 years vs. the full cost of procedures we'd had done in that time. Full cost would have been ~40% of our premiums + residuals. In this aspect of life, we've decided to self-insure.
Yeah, dental insurance is primarily a tool for companies to provide a tax free benefit to employees. It doesn't make much sense to buy dental insurance yourself, unless you're high risk (get lots of cavities, etc.)
Without insurance you can often get reasonably priced dental care at dental universities if you have one local.
At least for anything students can work on (fillings, extractions, etc). If you need a root canal, ortho, jaw surgery, or etc then I doubt it'll be a great option.
I strongly urge people to avoid regular dentists for serious work that there are specialists for. They don't have the tools or expertise, and often leave people with broken jaws and infections that lead to more surgeries. Pay the extra; you'll wish you did when your jaw is wired shut, or you have to pay again to re-do a root canal, or go to emergency due to infection.
Makes me wonder what the insurance company is paying, how much you pay them and if its even worth it.
My dentist (in UK) charges £2500 for an implant. I don't have insurance.
(technically I do have insurance, since NHS dentistry exists which I pay for in my taxes. However I had an NHS dentist and when they got sold on to Bupa they would simply not do things which would be expensive for them, meaning after some years I had fillings falling out and broken teeth all over)
Allot of it is also education. I grew up thinking, if you get a cavity the dentist will fix it, no worries. But you're teeth can only be repaired so much, and every time it's more expensive.
I never asked any questions or tried to understand why I got cavities (in part cos of the cost). It was just... I have bad teeth, it is what it is. But it's not. there is allot you can do, foods to avoid, drinks to avoid (beyond the obvious).
But things are getting better, some dental hygienists are on YouTube now, who teach how to look after your teeth.
Definitely, you can also add in foods and supplements to promote beneficial bacteria. But until recently finding objective measures of your interventions was hard.
I came across Teeth Talk Girl a few months ago, allot of informative content, and seems pretty unbiased.
There is also "Baseline Dental" and "Dr. Brett Langston" channels. Quality a bit mixed and somewhat promoting there place of work.
But yeah, still pretty dry out there, but better then a few years ago. Probably more on tiktok... but that's tiktok.
In Holland we (used to?) get these fluoride paste treatments when we're young. They reinforce the enamel and it works really well. I've had like 2 cavities and I'm in my late 40s. And I drink a ton of sodas.
That paste used to make me really sick but wow it does work.
Not sure if they still have this though because the neolibs have destroyed the state health system and replaced it with mandatory private insurance that doesn't include dental anymore.
As a US kid in the 2000s my dentist would give some kind of foam fluroide treatment. Foam would be put into two trays and you'd have to keep them on your teeth for two minutes. I remember hating it because it made me nervous I'd swallow some.
I still get fluoride treatments from my dentist but now it's something he paints on, perhaps the same as what you've described.
Anyway, according to a dentist friend, whether you get cavities is also dependent on the natural groves in your teeth. Some people's genetics cause them to have more cavity prone teeth than others.
I know many in the US that fluoride treatments that are ridden with fillings. I think you have a tooth shape and oral microbiome, that is resistant to cavities, rather than the fluoride treatments. How can we know what the provided the benefit based on n=1?
Also General Jack D Ripper has concerns about the impact to P.O.E. ;)
Because it's not n=1. Most people from my generation have really strong teeth.
It's something that really helped, my dentist joked about being put out of business :P My parents' generation have really bad teeth that started going bad in their teens already.
It’s called fluoride varnish. The ADA use to recommend it only for children but in the last decade they updated their guidelines to include all ages. My dentist applies it now but my insurance does not cover it.
It wasn't applied like varnish though, it was gel in trays that we had to bite on for 5 minutes. Yuck.
It was indeed only for kids, the dentist said the enamel no longer absorbs it when the teeth are fully grown. But perhaps this has been disproven now. I'll ask my current dentist about it.
I used to have all sorts of issues with my teeth, and ended up with 2 root canals, and crowns, and had 1 of them go bad. Ended up with an implanted tooth. Yikes.
Learned later about how cavities work and figured out the best routine for my teeth - floss and then brush (Philips electric toothbrush) every morning. Brush and then fluoride rinse every night. I always floss/brush before breakfast, and wait at least 30 min after dinner to brush/fluoride rinse.
I haven’t even had a cavity in 5+years, and my dentist always says I don’t even have any plaque to scrape off - “you have good dental hygiene, and I don’t say that very often”
Eat a carnivore diet and your tooth issues will go away. At least try to eat only real foods, never add any added sugar into anything and avoid all processed foods (treat rice and pasta as processed foods as well, they are not real foods!).
There are plenty of books out there that show that for all indigenous tribes, as soon as they got into contact with western civilization and started eating a carb heavy diet (beer & grains), their teeth rotted away within one generation.
Is the diet angle related to the contact of the food with the teeth, or is the related to something that happens after digestion?
If it were only related to contact of food with teeth, wouldn't rinsing your mouth after eating achieve the same effect as any diet like "carnivore diet"?
And by “carnivore”, do you mean specifically including meat? Or do you mean something completely different, like a ‘varied & balanced’ diet?
I find it odd to list the biggest change in a move from a more tribal to a more westernised diet as being “beer & grains”. I would have expected the increase in sugar and chemicals/preservatives to be the relevant factor.
I hope this doesn't come across as poorly stated, but I would highly recommend looking into possible dietary causes. I don't mean you are eating like a slob, but rather you are eating something which you are not supposed to eat either because it is too processed for your body or it is an allergen. Tooth decay can be cause by the diet you are consuming and if you are not consuming the correct nutrients( bioavailability is based on your genetics and not just the source of food)
To add to this, sugar/sweets aren't the only thing bad for your teeth. Other less obvious things like bread or pasta are terrible for the teeth. Basically the "simple carbohydrates" group of foods.
Also acidity matters, try to keep it neutral like water/milk. (things like coffee or wine should be avoided).
Brushing times can also help and always floss at least daily.
If you're interested in learning more I would check out the teethtalkgirl YT channel. It's a great way to learn a heaps about teeth without paying $$$ at the dentist asking questions. (but you should still go to the dentist)
Anyway, that's my 2c, best of luck, teeth are the worst.
OP must have a disease or something. According to some brief research, $25B spent on out-of-pocket dental work in 2021, which averages out to like $70 per person. And I'd guess that a significant number of people don't spend a dime.
It's not a science problem. The system just robes you. For example, to replace one tooth with implant you need about 700$ in Belarus or about 1000$ in Poland.
Ok, in these countries dentist has 1800$-3000$ netto.
When I installed implant in Belarus, my dentist spent 30 minutes to remove tooth, make surgery to overgrow part of gum and install implant and then 20 minutes (after 3 month) to install new tooth.
Let's imagine than in US doctor is few time slower. That means he need 4 hours for this. And let's imagine that ha want 100$ in hour. That still 400$ - nothing special. But I guess that in USA you will pay more then 3000$.
As for materials and equipment, in US all this even chipper than in west Europe because all this is produced is US.
And at the end you pay for unnecessary thinks like ad.
If you don’t get dental insurance through work it’s generally not worth it (premiums > typical expense).
That doesn’t sound necessarily bad — insurance is for the extraordinary events anyway, right? But when my kid had his wisdom teeth out or I was hit by a car and needed a crown to hold a damaged tooth together, my regular health insurance covered it, not dental insurance.
This is expected in the US, the kicker is that even in the comfortably socialist EU dentists generally aren't included in the state healthcare unless it becomes an emergency room issue.
It's weird to me. We've had hundreds of thousands of years with no dentists and toothpaste and now I'm told only way to keep teeth healthy is to brush twice a day with chemicals and an electric tool.
In medieval times they used to rob teeth from healthy young subjects. It was possible to "implant" those teeth just by jamming them by force into gums. Success rate unknown.
So you could grow teeth in-vitro from patient's own stemcells and then implant those. I would be safer and not much testing needed.
I wasn't debating the ethics of buying a poor and enslaved person's teeth off them, I just wanted to correct the idea that George was jamming them into his gums hoping they would grow. The teeth were used in dentures.
Yes, a social system in which your involuntary labor all goes to your "owner" and in which you are reduced to selling your teeth for spending money is an abhorrent one.
It's capitalism ad absurdum. Sure, today people are born "free", but they still have to pay money to keep a roof overhead and food on the table, and that same money can be used, say, for dental procedures that could save teeth, so in a way people still have to make choices about whether they'd rather have money or teeth. They just also have more options for getting money. You can still see the impact of these forced choices in poor people's mouths.
The beneficiaries of this indirect coercion -- when restricted to the subject of teeth -- are today mostly dentists, and the actions chosen are mostly inactions (skip treatment, get a cheaper treatment). In those days, the beneficiaries included people who needed dentures, and the actions were less passive: They involved submitting to pliers.
On the ethical spectrum, it's somewhere quite a bit worse than buying a wig made of a Pakistani lady's hair, but better than buying a Chinese prisoner's kidney.
I'd really like to see a source for the medieval transplantation method to be honest. I would have figured there would have been better options than that. The wikipedia article itself seems to suggest that there may have been more sophistication to the method.
Also seems like there's evidence of the practice going way back to ancient Egypt, which isn't hugely surprising but it's crazy that this is something established for at least as long as good old cruelty-free metal teeth [2]
Yeah, this idea that you can transplant another person's tooth without rejection is very interesting. The mouth is pretty special in terms of its ability to heal, so you can half-believe it, but I'm skeptical. I'd also love to see a source.
(Edit: The history section of your Wikipedia link [1] is interesting.)
Dont know. Few years back there was even talk about growing new fingers by preventing the growth of scarring tissue. What ever happened to that project?
Longaker lab is at the forefront of anti-scarring from what I know with their verteporfin research around blocking engrailed 1 gene expression during wound healing to prevent fibrosing and encourage perfect wound healing. They’ve only done it on skin though, haven’t seen anything about fingers or limbs
Dedicated teeth farming is little difficult I reckon. But we can clone a whole body just for spare parts. I bet some rich bastard is already doing that.
In May of 1784, Washington paid several unnamed slaves 122 shillings (£6.10, equivalent to £794 in 2021) for a total of nine teeth to be implanted by a French doctor.
Unless you install into fresh socket, the success must have been because of bone-to-bone adhesion.
Paid != success. For all we know it could have 0 success rate. We had lot of meaningless or harmful surgeries in the past. I want to know how well it worked in the cases it worked.
I wonder how teeth regrowth would work? Our adult teeth don't "push out" like it seems, but our body "grows out and around" the adult teeth formed from early age (maybe even birth? I'm no expert). You can look up pictures of baby skulls where the adult teeth are visible deep in the bone; a baby's adult teeth are formed already, and located in the bone around the lower nose area, some almost on the side of the nose; the baby will grow into them.
It’s not the same thing but you can currently buy novamin and nano hydroxyapatite based pastes which help to remineralize enamel (they do not regrown teeth completely).
On the note of dental hygiene I recommend, in addition to the standard stuff:
1. Rising your mouth with water immediately after eating. If you’re at a restaurant just drink some water, swish rigorously for 15 seconds and swallow.
2. Flossing regularly soon after eating. Couple with a water flosser if possible.
Have you seen your enamel improve using those? I've used a Sensodyne one for a year with zero results and switched back. My dentist seemed unsurprised by those results, so the effect is probably miniscule in general if there's any at all.
I'll offer another point in support of your experience. I purchased the non-US Sensodyne, verified it had Novamin, used the entire tube as directed with no water drinking for at least half an hour afterward, and saw zero results.
Well I'm in Europe, so I'm not sure if I can buy the same ones. It had novamin listed on the packaging ingredients so unless they're blatantly lying, it had it.
Heh, touché. The European one should have novamin. The effect isn’t supposed to be drastic. In fact I stopped using novamin as well because the studies I read didn’t show substantial difference vs fluoride toothpaste. I assume your dentist didn’t notice much? I’d still give nano hydroxyapatite a try.
Yes. Sensodyne is worthless in my experience, but brushing with a toothpaste I bought in Japan to restore enamel really worked. It had very immediate effects and my teeth kept the protective enamel even after I ran out.
Sensodyne has a bioglass (sometimes called hydroxyapatite, NOVAMIN, or Biomin) which is what you are describing however it's excluded from the Sensodyne sold in the US. The reason why is a long story [1] but if you want "good" Sensodyne you have to import it from literally anywhere else or buy a no-flouride biomin version (made by Dr. Collins who decided to go through the FDA process) in the US. Both are luckily pretty easy to get on Amazon however there's a bit of a markup.
Fyi apagard premio has a 5-6% concentration, you ideally want 10%. That's what's been shown to be most effective in clinical trials, Apagard Royal has 10% but you can find similar concentrations cheaper from other brands.
For me, this kind of toothpaste was much worse for sensitivity than a high-fluoride toothpaste you can get prescribed by your dentist. (It's a prescription, but it's inexpensive.)
The bioglass toothpastes (i.e. the ones that contain NOVAMIN or Biomin) are doing something different than high-flouride toothpastes.
The biolgass ones aren't really "restoring enamel" but they "refill" (remineralise) the enamel with all the minerals that slowly leach out before the enamel actually wears away.
The flouride toothpastes act by hardening the structures those other minerals make up which increases the resistance of your teeth.
They both do different things but they work well together. In the US you won't find them both in the same toothpaste (only Biomin C/without flouride is FDA approved) but outside the US you can find Sensodyne with NOVAMIN and flouride as well as Biomin F (with flouride).
So depending where you live, you might want to give them another shot but making sure you use both bioglass and flouride (I personally do a dot on my toothbrush of both Dr. Collins Biomin Restore and Colgate PreviDent 1.1% NaF 5% KNO3). At least for me it has worked a lot better than just doing one or the other.
I have thought about this in regards to combining stannous fluoride with hydroxapatite due to the synergy between fluoride and hydroxyapatite (Although I believe most studies which have found this synergy used sodium fluoride, not the traditionally superior stannous fluoride, so not sure if the synergy will uphold). I think there are only a few toothpastes on the market with a proper concentration of both sodium fluoride and hydroxyapatite, have not seen any mouth rinses with both. The problem with mixing mouthrinses or toothpastes is that you will inevitably reduce the concentrations of both active ingredients, in absolute quantity they will be the same, but I wonder if they will become overwhelmed and nullified by the relatively larger quantity of non active ingredients. IIRC hydroxyapatite in toothpaste is rated 10% max in EU, and it's also most effective at that amount, for mouth rinses it is 0.465 %. It would actually be easier to find some high fluoride toothpaste that would suffer less from dilution, I've heard recommendations of around 1500ppm, so if I am not mistaken getting a 3000ppm toothpaste would allow for ok dilution if only you had another with 20% hydroxyapatite in a 1:1 ratio. Overall the solution I am settling on is fluoride rinses when waking up and going to bed, and hydroxyapatite toothpaste twice a day, no clue about the synergy there, but seems reasonable as most hydroxyapatite pastes are filling the no fluoride market niche, which comes with the nice benefit that they aren't filled with a bunch of other trash inactive ingredients, meanwhile fluoride mouth rinse less affected by such things compared to fluoride toothpastes.
Be carful using high PPM fluoride. Too much fluoride can cause white spots to appear on your teeth. (I believe the dentist can clear the spots, but don't quote me on that)
They've worked for me several times over the years when I had sensitivity issues. Takes a month or so to notice and you should be careful not to drink water for a while after you use them.
I like Dr jens super paste, it was one of the only ones I was able to find that has the 10% concentration that's been shown most effective in clinical trials. Apagard Royal does too but that's pricier
Excellent question: I would also like to know the benefits of brushing without toothpaste vs with toothpaste.
Irrelevant anecdote: I had cavities as a preteen but none after. My dental hygiene is non rigorous brushing at least once a day, more if a tooth begins to feel sensitive. Last dentist visit 20 years ago.
Hopefully this ends up going somewhere. We've been hearing for decades how there's certain bacteria that nearly removes the requirement to brush your teeth regularly, but it never seems to reach the general public. Exciting times ahead if we can ultimately destroy the need for the dental care industry. In a few decades having to brush your teeth regularly will probably be regarded as an antiquated practice.
Yeah even if the bacterium magically took care of gum health, it would need to somehow be able to dissolve tartar (calcium phosphate) without dissolving teeth (also calcium phosphate).
From "Reactivating Dormant Cells in the Retina Brings New Hope for Vision Regeneration" (2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35871917: direct neuronal reprogramming (for retinal growth), Tissue NanoTransfection, Muller glia
> What share of U.S. children and adults have dental benefits?
> Dental benefits coverage varies by age. For children ages 2-18, 51.3 percent have private dental benefits, 38.5 percent have dental benefits through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and 10.3 percent do not have dental benefits. For adults ages 19-64, 59.0 percent have private dental benefits, 7.4 percent have dental benefits through Medicaid, and 33.6 percent do not have dental benefits. Source: Dental Benefits Coverage in the U.S.
FWIU, dental lasers cost from $4-40K per unit, per station in the office; and they may be tuned for specific applications or general purpose. There's a waveguide to guide the beam; and there are new waveguide methods for steering photon beams through opaque tissue (with e.g. dual beams).
"Scientists Have Discovered a Drug [Tideglusib] That Fixes Cavities and Regrows Teeth" (2017) that's already FDA approved for Alzheimer's but there are yet no clinical trials of it as a cavity fill??
https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-have-discovered-thi...
My experience is that this field is very, let's say, business-savvy, so it's safe to say they'll figure out how to profit off of this.
Most dentists that I've been to have more business than they're able to serve, so I suppose their client base won't dry up too soon - especially that such procedures are bound to be expensive - at least initially.
Then there's orthodontics, because who says that this new tooth will grow perfectly straight?
I mean there are other good reasons to brush your teeth apart from just tooth decay. Your gums are important too - also if you’re ever going to kiss anyone, they’re probably going to prefer your mouth not smell and taste like a decaying corpse.
Sounds exciting and less of a hassle than CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing shark DNA (sharks regrow teeth when needed). They lose at least 30.000 teeth over a lifetime…
Consumer warning: might cause drowsiness, or anxiety. Teeth growth is guaranteed, but the location of newly grown teeth is not. Consult your doctor if you have high blood pressure, pregnant, or breastfeeding. Do not take with alcohol.
Teeth growth is guaranteed, the location and the shape of newly grown teeth is not. Expect replacement teeth to be distinctly sharper than your existing molars. Use caution when chewing. Although rare, some patients experience changes in appetite that can be permanent. Avoid swimming and contact your doctor if you experience strong cravings for raw meat, or a noticeable increase in desire to bite people or pets.
> Unlike humans, all sharks are born with teeth. They grow in conveyor-belt rows, with the biggest teeth facing outwards. Over time, the smaller teeth in the back move up, replacing the front ones. Most sharks have between 5-15 rows, and the whale shark has a whopping 3,000 teeth in its mouth!
Wisdom teeth aren't the problem, they're supposed to be there. Wisdom teeth getting compacted are a symptom of a larger problem.
If a child is not fed enough tough foods, then they end up not using and developing their facial muscles correctly.
If those muscles which should be guiding the jaw into it's correct position aren't being used correctly, they end up causing the jaw to not develop properly. Now you end up with a mouth-breathing child who has a reverse swallow, crowded teeth, and is going to need braces, a retainer, and possibly a CPAP machine.
If this can effectively regrow replacement teeth it seems that the dentist will want more than anything to suppress or somehow monopolize the technology in order to maintain their role as "fixers of teeth".
Otherwise, it's just a matter of time before any doctor (or layman) will be able to pull damaged teeth and then easily regrow them, avoiding the endless thousands that would be otherwise charged for dental repairs.
>Otherwise, it's just a matter of time before any doctor (or layman) will be able to pull damaged teeth and then easily regrow them
I'd sure like to know that the person pulling my tooth knows how to evaluate it with an x-ray to see if it really needs to be pulled (and to see if the bone structure beneath it is healthy enough to regrow a tooth), and is trained to administer appropriate dental painkillers. If I asked my primary care physician to do it, I'd expect him to refer me to a dentist.
At least in my area, teeth removal is at least 10x cheaper than root canal. I don't think GP meant there will be 0 dentists, it would be just that lot of preventative care and tooth repair work will be gone, which I were to guess will reduce dentists quantity and quality requirement significantly.
I agree - even though these things are generally really easy to do (second year dental students successfully do all of this under supervision), the reason a dentist is needed is for when something goes wrong.
I misunderstood this article. I read that yes, they can trigger new teeth to grow. For some reason I thought they nailed how to regrow tooth enamel for example. My thinking was, if you can grow a tooth, you can regrow the current. THAT is the dream. But this super amazing study and experiment isn't going to change the world of orthodonti.
> Once confirmed to have no ill effects on the human body, it will be aimed at treating children aged 2 to 6 who exhibit anodontia.
This greatly limits usefulness of the whole enterprise. The problem is that this condition is not likely to be found at that age, it's found later when the problem is evident to parents. What is actually needed is some treatment for teenagers or young adults.
I've given up on science being able to do anything other than for mice or create a new subscription service for lifelong meds. I suppose actual cures aren't profitable. I am tired of being cynical but that's the cycle we have all been on.
Actually I get bruises and scratches on my scalp when my head is clean shaven. With hair? Rarely if never. And as for confidence and looks, nothing beats with hair. So technically yeah that's a escape it would be better to have them back. And in my case the decline is actually due to local water quality and pollution (3rd world).
> A new UCL paper has revealed that the wide-spread belief that the British have poorer teeth than our American cousins is, in fact, a myth.
> The research led by Richard Watt, Professor of Dental Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, found that the mean number of missing teeth a person has is significantly higher in the US.
I am glad they did this work, but I don't think it gets at what's behind the joke about British teeth.
For me, the exemplar is the Austin Powers jokes about his teeth. It's not that the average Brit has fewer teeth than the average American. It's that a person who American would expect, for reasons of class and style, to have an engineered smile (very white, very even teeth) instead had a perfectly natural one. Even the movie suggested that the stereotype was somewhat outdated. But to the extent we still have the stereotype, it's about upper- and upper-middle-class use of orthodontia and whitening. Plus the distinctive American emphasis on the big smile, which to a lot of non-Americans can seem mildly deranged.
I'm pretty sure it's now based on the observation that very wealthy and important people in Britain don't have giant blinding veneers.
Americans think that the class terror that forces them to spend thousands or tens of thousands on their children's teeth (and their own) is universal, rather than a norm that we find ourselves locked into now. Americans with anything going on with their teeth look poor or disreputable, and it severely hurts your job chances.
Rich British people are just like "do you know who I am?"
A £300 optional surcharge to perform what US dentistry rightfully considers the baseline standard of care is going to result in a lot of people’s teeth having subpar function and appearance.
But they don’t pay for almost anything routine in the UK. In the US my understanding is you are not typically getting any free dental care. £300 is not a major expense for a typical person in the UK.
I claimed that treating it as an opt-in extra, for additional charge — instead of the baseline standard of care — results in a lot fewer people receiving it, and thus, a lot more people with subpar dental function and appearance.
In other words, to save money, the NHS provides a lower standard of care as its baseline. Hence the popular idea that British dentistry is subpar.
I haven't tried to push the subject too hard but NHS dentists will at least in some cases just say "you'll need a crown afterwards" and that's that.
Also
> If you need treatment from more than 1 dental band as part of your treatment plan, you will only be charged the cost of the highest band. You will not be charged for each individual treatment.
I think the idea that people have in terrible teeth in the UK is a bit outdated, but did you look carefully at the study?
The ‘better teeth’ you report is 7 missing teeth on average in the uk vs 7.3 in the US. Both of those numbers seem high to me: you’d need to have all wisdom teeth plus three more removed for example. It made me wonder whether that average was biased by old people[1] with many missing teeth[2], who I think aren’t that relevant to the idea about teeth being bad in one country rather than another.
For the ‘oral health impacts’ measure, which corresponds to a questionnaire, OHIP-14[3], with questions like ‘have you been self-conscious because of your teeth, mouth or dentures?’ The score for the UK is lower than the US here, though I guess the measure is less objective and you can imagine cultural factors would impact the answers (eg maybe people from one country would downplay things more, or if worse teeth are more socially acceptable in the country, people there may be less likely to be embarrassed about their teeth.
I think the kind of ‘bad teeth’ more common in the U.K. is crookedness (eg overlapping incisors or over/underbite) and teeth being more yellow. The paper notes that they weren’t able to measure things like that.
My general impression is that bad teeth in the US (on someone who grew up there) are a pretty strong signal that someone grew up poor, and this is a little less the case for the UK.
[1] the paper claims these are ‘age-standardised’ numbers. I don’t really know what that means but I guess that it means the number is mostly meaningful for comparing the countries rather than what people in those countries are like. For ages 25–44, they report averages of 3.7(UK) vs 4.6, which still looks a bit high to me. There’s about five times the rate of toothless mess in the US for that age group which made me think there might be some small population in the US with many missing teeth that isn’t so large in the UK, but the paper found the same income-based inequality in number of missing teeth
[2] The paper claims to have gotten similar results when excluding the toothless
[3] Slade GD; Derivation and validation of a short-fortn oral health impact profile. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology 1997; 25; 284-90.
